Midterm Madness and Snow Patrol is Glorious!

Hey all!

I hope you're all enjoying spring in Winnipeg, slush and sand and all! It's been chilly here for a few days now, only 15+ which when you're used to 25-30- does feel kind of cold. I'm wishing I'd sent myself a sweater or two in the package that finally arrived! Only two months to cross the pacific, yay! I'm on my beautiful mac right now. When I finally did get my package from home I held out on opening it for the day and had a get together in the evening to commemorate the event. So You Think You Can Dance Australia was on at the same time so half the time we were watching that... but the rest was about the few things I sent myself, including a framed picture of me and Chloe, and a drawing Dani did of her and myself : )

So this past weekend I went to the Virgin Music Festival at the Melbourne Showgrounds. Tiffany, Caitlin and I got on the tram at 10 to make it there for noon. As I've said, it's a big, big city. I'm not sure how many people were there, I can't find any attendance numbers online but all I know is it was A LOT. Despite being chilly and cold it was a fantabulous day. Saw the horrible Duffy, who had a great voice but preeeetty was much the worst performance I've ever witnessed. Wandered around, saw Elbow and M83 and The Do. We stopped off at one of the 4 stages halfway through the day because there was an act called Vanilla Ice on the schedule. I told Tiffany and Caitlin that we were wasting our time, it was going to be a totally different act. I was wrong.

That's right, I saw Vanilla Ice.

Well, heard him. The crowd was way beyond fire hazard levels in the area surrounding the stage tent, you couldn't see anything at all. But it doesn't matter, it was hilarious nontheless. I wanted to see the Kaiser Chiefs but decided to go to This Stage (they were named This, That and Other) during Madness - who were fantastic - to get a good place to stand for Snow Patrol.

Best. Decision Ever. They were absolutely, completely amazing. One of the best concerts I may ever go to. I would have paid so, so much more than I did to see them. I was at the very front behind the security divide and I'd go again in a second. After Snow Patrol finished I went to This Stage to see the last hour of The Killers. The crowd was maybe 10,000 people? The festival definitely had a totally different feel than folk fest - Melbournians don't seem to know how to dress down, they always look like they stepped out of a fashions of tomorrow photoshoot.
Then after midnight on the way home we got tram tickets for being ten stops into Zone 2 with only full day Zone 1 tickets. So now I have to pay $170 which I don't even want to think about. We were all so tired that we couldn't even muster the energy to be frustrated or nervous, we just wanted to go home and dream about the concerts and forget about transportation officials.

I know it's finals at uni back home, and my mom just got back from spring break, but here in Aus it's midterms! So after many, many hours of struggling to get back into the right headspace for school I think I finally got that part of my brain going again and the past few days have been about discussion papers, online midterm tests and a presentation on economic policy in Australia in my tutorial. Most people have been swamped with work so we just get together to commiserate during our frequent study breaks.

I've included pictures of my opening the package party, where I served brownies to happy guests, as well as pictures from Caitlin and Tiffany of Vfest. There are also half a dozen from a photobooth session I had with Matt from Toronto and Joe from England. Due to various scholastic circumstances both left for home this week which was really sad, I was just getting to know what a lovely person Matt is and now he's gone. BUT, it gives me yet another reason to road trip through Ontario once I get home. Not only do I have reason to stop in Ottawa and Guelph, but now Toronto!

Other than that, you should all watch this video of Snow Patrol performing at Vfest in Sydney a week before I saw them. They were ever better in Melbourne if I do say so myself : )
Snow Patrol video-
http://www.vfestival.com.au/media/snow-patrol-run-/AfeWJ5GjUQ.html

Next update will be of my Outback road trip, so I love you all and wish you could fit into our campervan!
Ayla

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